Oyster Shells
by UnluckyAmulet
Summary: It's always the quiet ones. -Sun-Sun x Ulquiorra-


Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

This idea just sort of occurred into my head, really, and grew from there. I hadn't originally intended for it to be the length it is, but I'm quite happy with the result. Rated T for mentionings of sex, but nothing graphic.

The main pairing is obviously Sun-Sun/Ulquiorra, but plenty of side pairings as well. To list them: Mira-Rosa/Tesla, Mira-Rose/Gio Vega, very small hint of Ulquiorra/Orihime and Grimmjow/Orihime. (I _think_ that's all of them.) And some slight Halibel/Halibabes. (I refuse to spell Halibel's name as "Harribel".)

Enjoy!

* * *

Sun-Sun is used to being ignored.

In truth, she has a sort of problem with reaching out to people.

There are unspoken rules in Las Noches, and Sun-Sun cannot keep track of them all. She has a tendency to stay within her own group, walking in the shadow of her mistress. She considers herself lucky that she serves an Espada like Halibel-sama, someone whom who admires unquestioningly. Even though she is not the strongest Espada, Sun-Sun will follow her wherever she goes, if needed. Halibel-sama rarely says much, but she is one of the few Espada who actually cares about her subordinates. She doesn't need to tell them that- they know, and they will gladly die for this generosity.

Sun-Sun rarely speaks either, except for the occasional reprimand of Apache and Mira-Rose, and even then it seems to be more out of routine then anything else. It is just banter between the three of them, although in Sun-Sun's opinion, Apache and Mira-Rose are just hungry for attention, to be acknowledged, even a little bit. Any kind of attention will do.

Sun-Sun, however, prefers to watch and listen and to talk when necessary. Halibel-sama has mastered this to a fine art. When she speaks, others listen. Sun-Sun isn't really trying to copy Halibel; she just wants to appease her, in her own subtle way. Even though Sun-Sun is a mere fraccion, she envies the confidence and ease of the Espada. It is especially noticeable in Halibel-sama, but there is someone else that catches her attention. Sun-Sun is not brash like Apache or flirtatious like Mira-Rose, so she always remains in the aloof in the background.

She doesn't mind it too much. She knows that Apache generally sneers at members of the opposite sex, the other male fraccion sneering at her boyish ways, but Mira-Rose is adept at her brief trysts with other fraccion. Sun-Sun doesn't know how she manages it. Halibel doesn't bother to stop her- Mira-Rose is protected by Halibel-sama's reputation, and as long as she is discreet about it, it doesn't matter one way or another.

This is one of the rare times when Sun-Sun is caught in-between her fellow subordinates. She does not arrogantly dismiss men like Apache or slyly pursue them like Mira-Rose. Sun-Sun just watches. In particular, she watches him.

The Fourth Espada is melancholy, quiet like her. He moves almost silently through Las Noches, his impassive facial expression barely ever changes. His silence is different from Halibel's. He is cold, silent like a glass tomb, like ice. It is too hard to tell what he is thinking; trying to read his face is like trying to feel your way through the dark.. His silent gaze is intimidating in its own way, and lower arrancar tend to avoid him.

Sun-Sun, of course, avoids everyone anyway.

* * *

Her usual method of watching and listening, however, has a fatal flaw.

That flaw is that once somebody realises she's doing it, it becomes a very hard habit to break.

She is sure Ulquiorra has noticed her watching. Perhaps if it had been any other Espada- any at all, except Halibel-sama- they would not have noticed. She is just a lowly fraccion, after all. As one of the unspoken Las Noches rules, fraccion are generally expected to stay with their respective masters. For an Espada to show interest in another Espada's fraccion is somewhat unusual.

Perhaps, though, it is all right for Ulquiorra. He has no fraccion, after all.

Sun-Sun thinks it strange, that Ulquiorra has no fraccion. She wonders if he did have one, if that fraccion would notice her watching him. Subordinates are sensitive to the behaviours of others. They tend to be competitive, trying to prove _they_ have the best master, that _they_ are the most loyal to their masters.

Personally, although it's not like anybody ever asks for her opinion, Sun-Sun considers such competitive behaviour stupid. If they truly had confidence in their loyalty and in their master, they wouldn't feel the need to compare it to other fraccion's. For her, Halibel-sama comes first and that is that.

But her curiosity for the Forth Espada is persistent. Sun-Sun hides her smiles behind the sleeves of her clothing, but she feels almost as though Ulquiorra can still see them.

He watches her, sometimes, as she deliberately lags behind Apache and Mira-Rose, who bicker and squawk behind Halibel-sama.

She can't quite look back.

* * *

Running into him is inevitable, really. Las Noches might be large, but Espada know their way around much better then the other arrancar, and Ulquiorra is no exception.

They did not do anything so clumsy as actually collide, because they could sense each other, even if Sun-Sun had been trying to avoid his reiatsu, but his stare is strangely penetrating nonetheless.

"You are one of Halibel's fraccion," he states, his voice as composed and unreadable as his face.

"Sun-Sun," replied she, raising her sleeve automatically to her mouth.

Apache used to think that Sun-Sun was hiding some kind of physical abnormality when she did this, like a scar or a snake's tongue, but it is merely a habit. Sun-Sun does not speak often or gets asked her opinion much, after all, so when she does she feels like she needs to cover herself, in case she says the wrong thing.

"You should be careful of where you look, fraccion," Ulquiorra tells her. It is not so much as threat as him stating a fact.

"Yes, Ulquiorra-sama," replies Sun-Sun, wondering if he is referring to the fact Sun-Sun had been thinking, rather then watching the path in front of her, or something else. How like Ulquiorra to speak in double meanings. She raised her magenta eyes to his. A dangerous move. Some Espada would consider it a challenge, but he doesn't even blink. She lowers her gaze, respectfully. "I must return to Halibel-sama."

"Go, then." he replies, "Fraccion."

Sun-Sun continues on her way, but not before a petulant little whisperhiss escapes from her mouth, before she can quite stop it.

_Sun-Sun.  
_

And she knows that he can hear it, but she is not quite brash enough to look back. So she hides a little smirk behind her sleeve and hurries on her way, back to the safety of Halibel-sama's shadow.

But she likes to think that Apache and Mira-Rose would do the same thing. Because really, for all their bluster, they are no braver then she is.

Ulquiorra, as Sun-Sun discovers, has an unsettling knack for turning up where you least expect him very suddenly, and then vanishing equally as quickly. Just recently, he seems to be everywhere she is, when he is not watching the human girl that Aizen had brought from the human world. They say she is some kind of god, but Sun-Sun would prefer not to find out firsthand.

Still, she can sense the woman's reiatsu whenever she goes near her room. She wishes she could sense Ulquiorra's reiatsu as easily, as the Fourth Espada is adept at masking it until the very last moment. Normally, she would not venture near, but one day, she decides to indulge in her curiosity.

The woman's reiatsu is very strange. It is not raw and overwhelming like that of the Espada or of Aizen. It has a soft feel, but once you sense it, the feel of it lingers for a long time. Sun-Sun has never known anybody to have a reiatsu like that before.

"What are you doing here?"

Ulquiorra's voice floats behind Sun-Sun, who turns in a slow, graceful circle. While his stance is utterly nonchalant, hands in his pockets, his reiatsu flows around him, like a web of electricity.

"Halibel-sama requested I find Mira-Rose," replied Sun-Sun, speaking into her sleeve, "I followed her reiatsu until I came to this point,"

This is true. While Halibel makes no attempt to stop Mira-Rose's little night-time visits to other fraccion, she usually sends Apache or Sun-Sun to bring her back. More often then not, it is Sun-Sun, as Apache tends to cause a scene when combined with a smug Mira-Rose. Tonight, it is apparently one of Barragan's fraccion, although Sun-Sun does not care to recall which one.

Ulquiorra doesn't say anything to this. The silence weighs heavily between them, although Sun-Sun makes no move whatsoever to fill it. Unlike many of her female acquaintances, she feels more comfortable in silence. It seems as though Ulquiorra is used to the woman he is assigned to breaking most silences, because he allows it to stretch on, too.

However, there is a sensation of a cold wind rushing past Sun-Sun's face, and Ulquiorra calmly says, as he stands behind her, back-to-back,

"Fraccion shouldn't wander so far from their masters."

Sun-Sun decided not to turn around. Instead, she replied calmly,

"It was not I who wandered, Ulquiorra-sama."

Ulquiorra says nothing to that, because he is gone. If Sun-Sun was the type of person who was used to being listened to, she would have thought it awfully rude of him to just vanish like that, but she merely raises her eyes to the path in front of her. She can still feel a slight tingle from the trace of reiatsu left behind by Ulquiorra. Almost like a brief touch.

Almost.

* * *

Sun-Sun cannot remember ever really _craving_ contact. Hollows are creatures born from pain, fear and loneliness, but Arrancar are expected to be a little more sophisticated. But they still feel weaknesses, even if they try not to show it.

Apache and Mira-Rose still squabble in the background, and Sun-Sun lets it wash over her instead of reprimanding them as usual. If they were really going overboard, Halibel-sama would let them know.

Surprisingly, they notice.

"Oi, Sun-Sun." grunts Apache, gruff and somewhat annoyed, "You sick? Ain't ya gonna tell us we're being 'unseemly' or some shit?"

"Yeah, isn't this the part where you try to act all superior on us?" adds Mira-Rose, less annoyed then Apache, but still aware of a shift in the routine. They don't like change.

Sun-Sun looks up at the white canvas of Hueco Mundo's ceiling.

"It doesn't matter," she says.

Halibel-sama glances at her, but she doesn't say anything. Perhaps Sun-Sun's part in the routine is there for a reason, but Sun-Sun is too tired to argue with her fellow fraccion today.

She just meets her mistress' eyes for a moment, then lowers them.

Sun-Sun would never disrespect her mistress. And in return, Halibel bows her head and lets her be.

* * *

The soft electricity of Ulquiorra's reiatsu proves to be not only long lasting but also strangely addictive. Sun-Sun can find all manner of excuses to wander along the same path near Orihime Inoue's quarters. Apache and Mira-Rose's frequent wanderings seem suddenly understandable, and even something necessary.

And Sun-Sun knows that Ulquiorra can sense her presence, because even if he does not appear in person, she can still feel the now-familiar little jolts of his lingering reiatsu, which Sun-Sun is sure lingers because he wills it to. The currents are rarely disturbed, as the only other Espada who bothers to wander here is Grimmjow, and he has bigger fish to fry then the likes of her.

"You seem to require walking past this point with alarming frequency, fraccion,"

Sun-Sun pauses in her tracks. It's not like she doesn't know who it is.

"I don't know what you mean, Ulquiorra-sama," she replies, hand automatically rising to her mouth, her movements deliberately slow. Ulquiorra stares at her in that silently intense way of his, as though he could see straight into her. It makes her feel oddly uneasy; vulnerable.

"I think you know perfectly well what I mean,"

When Sun-Sun's magenta eyes briefly dart to his, she feels a strange urge to trace those lines beneath his eyes, that look so much like tear-lines. It is soon dampened by common sense, but Sun-Sun's peculiar new craving for physical interaction persists. The scary thing is, it feels almost as though he can sense that, as well.

Almost as though he can hear her thoughts, Ulquiorra's eyes rake across Sun-Sun's face, and she doesn't look away, this time.

His eyes are just like Halibel-sama's.

* * *

It is difficult for Sun-Sun to recall precisely how things escalate from there. It all just seems to rush by her, in a blur of white, grey and green. She doesn't really care about remembering the when and how. The important thing is, that it has happened.

Sun-Sun doesn't think about what it means, when she spends her nights in Ulquiorra's room, his graceful white fingers slowly unfastening her arrancar clothes. His skin is almost as white as his own clothes, and it is strangely disconcerting to see him without them. But he seems to understand, even be encouraging, her new-found appetite for contact, because he lets her hands roam over him, tracing the hole in his chest, her finger gently following the jade markings on his face.

He merely eyes her with those emerald eyes of his as she touches him, and squeezes her thin wrists, or occasionally bites on her earlobe or her neck. Sun-Sun doesn't really think he's doing this to prove he is stronger or the dominant one- that is glaringly obvious. He seems to be equally as interested as touch as she is, but his touch is often firm and defined, whereas her fingers only flutter gently across him. Sometimes she nibbles on her lower lip or rakes her fingernails across her back, but he does not seem to care which she does. She wonders if Espada sometimes have cravings they must satisfy, and if that is all she is.

She decides she doesn't care.

She tries not to think of Halibel-sama during these moments. Although Halibel-sama is aware of what Sun-Sun is doing, the fraccion feels guilty afterwards without really understanding why. If Halibel-sama truly minded, she would object, but Sun-Sun wonders if what she is doing is considered disloyal, because he is an Espada. It seems unfair that Mira-Rose can be with whomever she wishes, and Apache can angrily dismiss, and yet Sun-Sun feels guilt for this one indulgence.

But maybe Halibel-sama is just as aware of Sun-Sun's craving as Ulquiorra seems to be. Because even when Sun-Sun tentatively brings up the subject, the Espada says nothing about it.

These thoughts only have enough room to take place a while after Sun-Sun leaves Ulquiorra's room. Because he chases them away with his penetrating stare, his commanding touch. When he kisses her, they are often long and deep, his teeth scraping against the tender skin on Sun-Sun's lips, often leaving the flesh of it raw, although he avoids making her bleed. Sun-Sun wonders how it is possible to be sensual yet distant, because it seems Ulquiorra knows exactly how to balance the two.

The best thing about when they have sex is not a word passes between them, but somehow, they still understand the other perfectly.

* * *

Apache and Mira-Rose, at first, seem a little stunned at Sun-Sun's newfound sexual outlet. She supposes that she can't really blame them, since she out of the three of them has always seemed the most indifferent about such things, until now.

"It just seems _weird_." complains Apache, apparently stressing the last word because she cannot think of a better one to define it, "I mean, since when did you care about that, Sun-Sun?"

"Lay off," Mira-Rose snaps, irritated, "Just because _you_ stick your fat nose up at guys doesn't mean we _all_ have to, Apache. Or maybe the real reason you're such a bitch is because you're really into _girls_?"

Strangely, Apache blushes furiously at this, before screeching,

"That's not it at all, Mira-Rose, you gigantic slut! I heard you've been fucking both Gio Vega AND that Tesla dick."

Mira-Rose smirks obviously pleased with her own sexual prowess. But she shoots an amused, slightly mocking look at Sun-Sun, saying,

"Well, at least I'm not fucking an_ Espada_."

"Do you both have to be so crude?" replies Sun-Sun, witheringly, and Apache and Mira-Rose glance at other, a little surprised by how poisonously calm Sun-Sun says this. She glances up at them, her magenta eyes steely, "It's not like that."

"What, you mean, you aren't fucking?" asks Apache, blinking.

"No,"

Sun-Sun closes her eyes for a moment, resting her head against the wall before adding, softly,

"That's not what it is. It's...something more."

With that, Sun-Sun stands up and, with a pleased little smirk on her face, drifts away, leaving Apache and Mira-Rose bewildered. For some reason, in not defining what exactly her relationship with Ulquiorra _is_, it just makes it all the sweeter for her.

* * *

Sometimes, after they're finished, Ulquiorra lets Sun-Sun stay in his room for a little while. Sometimes they talk, other times they don't. While Sun-Sun usually likes to remain silent, with Ulquiorra, she finds herself wanting to communicate more.

"Do you think what I am doing is wrong?" she asks Ulquiorra one day, lying down on his bed so that her dark green hair fans around her. Strangely, she doesn't raise her hand to cover her mouth anymore. With Ulquiorra, she feels free to say what she likes.

"Wrong is merely a word," Ulquiorra says, lying beside her, twisting some of her hair around his finger, "It is foolish to dwell on something that does not affect things significantly."

"I feel disloyal to Halibel-sama," laments Sun-Sun. She turns and looks into Ulquiorra's eyes, something she is no longer afraid to do. It is odd she feels unafraid with someone so dangerous, "It is significant to me. Halibel-sama is my master."

"I do not see any difference," Ulquiorra counters, his tone calm, "You are still her fraccion. The fact I am an Espada does not alter that fact. You would not feel that way if I were a fraccion or an ordinary arrancar, correct?"

"Perhaps," Sun-Sun concedes, deciding on an ambiguous response, but something still bothers her. Ulquiorra traces the pink dots under her eyes with his fingernail, pressing into her cheek only very slightly. He seems to be able to read her very easily, because he blandly says, "Halibel does not object. I do not see why you still feel remorse."

"Do you consider this insignificant?" Sun-Sun asks him, wondering why she can be so open with Ulquiorra, since he is not famed for being tactful or compassionate. But she still feels strangely compelled to ask him this, for his words bother her, "Is this merely an expression of carnal desires?"

Even though she cannot properly define what 'this' is, Ulquiorra leans back, apparently contemplating, although Sun-Sun is still not good enough at reading him to know that for sure. For a while, Sun-Sun wonders if Ulquiorra is even going to bother answering her at all, whether he considers her question unworthy of an answer. But Ulquiorra is good at surprising her.

"...I do not like to waste my time on things that I consider insignificant." he eventually says, slowly, his tone as neutral as ever, as though he just announced that the sky is blue or the world is round, but Sun-Sun smiles nonetheless.

"I'm glad," is all she says, and leans against him, her hair looking more obviously green against the ivory-white of his pale chest.

Silence descends, and even though they don't actually speak, they both understand something; the silence suits them perfectly, and they don't need anything more then this.

It doesn't need a definition.

* * *

I love Sun-Sun, I think she's one of my favourite fraccion. My version of her seems to be slightly less bitchy then the one in the anime, as she's a bit more subdued in the manga, but I like her either way. (I also really hope that my title makes sense, it does to ME, at least.)

Any feedback would be total love. Thanks for reading!


End file.
